Indian dairy cooperative development: A combination of scaling up and scaling out producing a center-periphery structure

Abstract

Our spatialized analysis of the development of Indian dairy cooperatives from 1995 to 2015 contributes both theoretically and empirically to research on inclusive business (IB) and development. We emphasize the degrees of inclusiveness through the distinction between scaling out and scaling up by using quantitative data related to business evolution during this period. We determine that the diversification of cooperative activities upstream and downstream combined with the preservation of smallholder access is a good indicator of IBs and inclusive ecosystems and, therefore, of scaling up. In contrast, while northern and eastern states have only low-level collection activities, the spatial concentration of large and diversified cooperatives in western Indian states shows a center-periphery structure, with scaling up taking place only in the center. The transfer of resources from mature to emerging cooperatives appears to be crucial, with consequences for both business model design and public intervention.